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Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Frying Pan Into Fire: Will Beefy Governments Make Us More Secure?

The reaction to the terrible attacks in France and
continuing anti-terror operations across Europe will sound familiar to many
Kenyans but should make them sit up and listen nonetheless. Across the world,
the rhetoric of war, the beefing up of security forces’ presence in our lives, and the benumbed acquiescence of the
citizenry to this governmental power grab have for the last four years almost
become the de rigueur response to terror attacks.

From Paris to Nairobi, terrorists are decidedly succeeding
in scaring people into abandoning long-cherished notions of liberté, égalité,
fraternité and are consequently empowering and emboldening governments to act
in ever more undemocratic and unaccountable ways. Democratic constitutions
designed to contain the power of states are seeming ever more quaint and
anachronistic in an era where regimes have reinvented themselves as protectors
rather than oppressors of the people.

Today lockdowns, emergency powers, mass surveillance, armed
police on the streets, criminalization of thoughts, expression and even dress are
fast becoming an indispensable attributes of a “free society”. The diminution
and sacrifice of civil liberties is seen
as necessary to earn the favour and protection of temporal potentates.

Back to Paris, which has now suffered a second, high
casualty terror incident in the space of less than twelve months. So far, criticism
of the French security and intelligence services has been muted, even within
France. This is understandable given the outpouring of sympathy the attacks
have provoked. However, when a conversation on how men and women could smuggle
military-grade weapons and suicide belts into the heart of the city does get
under way, it will almost inevitably result in more assaults on liberté.
Already, the French Parliament has voted
to extend a state of emergency which grants
“the police and military greater powers of search and arrest, and local
governments the right to ban demonstrations and impose curfews” for another
three months.

In Kenya, pro-government types have already begun to latch
on to the idea of uniting behind the regime as an example of how we should
respond to attacks. “French opposition stands with the govt amidst
#ParisAttacks..in kenya theyd be calling on the president to resign” went one
tweet. In times of terror, they would have us believe, the government can do no
wrong. The warped definitions of patriotism being forced down Kenyans’ throats essentially
boil down to “my government, right or wrong”.

Anyone querying the narratives coming out of the Uhuru
Kenyatta administration risks being branded a terrorist sympathiser. National security has become the carpet which
covers all ills. When a recent report
exposed syndicates within the Kenya Defence Forces smuggling charcoal and sugar
in southern Somalia where they are deployed as part of the AU peacekeeping
force, the report’s authors were immediately condemned as unpatriotic and
malevolent agents. The KDF spokesman went
on national TV to announce that the KDF had “quietly” begun investigating
them and their sources. Meanwhile, the allegations, which have consistently
been made by others including the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea as
well as independent journalists, went unanswered.

Similarly, when, a few weeks ago, journalists reported on
security procurement queries raised by the Auditor-General, they were
immediately summoned and one arrested
by police apparently on the orders of Internal Security Minister Joseph Ole
Nkaissery, who demanded they reveal their sources. Ironically, they were
accused of endangering public safety for reporting that the Auditor-General had
specifically stated
that the “purchase of second-hand arms and ammunition… from ‘friendly
manufacturers’” had “seriously compromis[ed] the operations of the security
agencies”. Of course, like with KDF smuggling, little to date has been said
about an investigation.

Our ears should thus prick up when President Kenyatta declares
corruption a threat to national security. This is not to say that graft
does not threaten the very fabric of the nation. It undoubtedly does. However,
a glance at the opaque and unconstitutional means the Uhuru administration has
adopted to deal with other national security threats, such as terrorism, should
give us some pause. They have resulted in laws that, instead of tackling
terrorists, have vastly expanded the powers of government and targeted its
opponents as well as the media’s ability to report on terror attacks. The above
example of Nkaissery’s mendacity demonstrates that the government has few
qualms about using “national security” to shield itself from public scrutiny. Therefore,
allowing it to frame the struggle against corruption in the language of national
security carries significant risks.

The reason Kenyans should keep a wary eye on European
reactions is because the administration will almost inevitably seek to
legitimize its own bad behaviour and lack of accountability by referring to
them. It will argue that the citizens of this “mature” democracy are blazing a
trail we should all follow, one of unquestioning loyalty and obedience to the
authorities. Just as few in France are today interrogating the retaliatory bombardment
of the Islamic State “capital” of Raqqa in Syria, so Kenyans are encouraged to
gloss over the reasons for and achievements of the 2011 invasion of Somalia.

Security, we are told, is a prerequisite for liberty. And in
our terrorized times, this has translated to a preference for more brawny and less
brainy states. However, beefy governments rarely countenance civil liberties. We conveniently forget that throughout history, it has been
governments that have been the main agents of terror. And that from Burundi to
North Korea, they continue to be the main perpetrators of it. True Al Qaeda, Al
Shabaab, ISIS, Boko Haram and their counterparts across the globe horrible savage
and vicious collections of mass murderers who need to be determinedly fought. According
to the 2015
Global Terrorism Index, last year terror groups were responsible for 32,658
deaths last year, the highest death toll ever recorded.

However, it pales into
comparison compared to the deaths caused by governments which US political
scientist RJ Rummel estimated
to be in the order of 262 million over the last century – an average of over 2.5 million a year. Government’s cause death and suffering on an
exponential scale. There's even a term for it: democide. Beefing them up so they can supposedly more effectively
and efficiently fight terrorists may very well be jumping from the frying pan
into the fire.

It is also important to remember another of Rummel’s
findings: “Concentrated political power is the most dangerous thing on earth ….The
more power a regime has, the more likely people will be killed. This is a major
reason for promoting freedom." Democracies which fragment and
distribute power are much less of a threat to their citizens than totalitarian
regimes where power is concentrated in the executive or in the leader.

Given the above, here’s the really bad news: And, as Canadian
MP, Elizabeth May, noted
last year: “Once we give up our rights and liberties, it's very hard to get
them back.” Rousseau was even gloomier. “Free people remember this maxim: we
may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.”